Hey! I decided I was going to try to post two chapters on the same night... Yeah, I know what you're thinking. But that is SO kind of you! Oh, yes. :) I know. Anyway, down to business! I don't own Astro Boy. But I DO own some of the characters in the story.

Chapter 25

Breaking the Rules

Star's POV-

Toby was alive? I turned around, and pushed the weird balding man away. He fell to the floor, and gave me a hurt look. I didn't care about him though. When I got to him, he looked at me. Confusion was clearly written all over his face. "Who am I?" His question threw me off. "Where am I?" He got into a more comfortable position on the table he was sitting on. "Who are you?" I had a feeling in my gut that was starting to make me sick. I backed away, but his response was to get up and come closer.

He wobbled dangerously, but he didn't seem to notice or if he did, he didn't care. "Does anyone else hear barking?" He asked, almost tripping over his own two feet. Now that he mentioned it, I did hear barking. How odd. Most buildings like this couldn't have dogs.

"That dog just doesn't know when to stay away from you, huh, Astro?" The little girl asked laughing. We were both starring at her clueless. She got the message and shut up. She seemed to wither on the spot though.

The dog burst through the door and acted like it wanted us to follow it. Toby looked over at me with a questioning look. I wasn't much of a dog person (1). The little girl pushed me forward and I pointed my arm cannon at her. She instantly backed off again. "No unauthorized personal, if you please." I growled at her. If it was possible she withered even more then she had previously.

Toby shrugged and we followed the dog out of the laboratory. "I wonder where it's trying to take us..." He seemed to be talking to himself, as if making sure his ears still worked or something. I wanted to tell him it was annoying, but I got the feeling he would just look at me funny and question why.

The dog stopped every now and then to make sure we were still following. It was apparently very anxious to arrive at where ever it was taking us. He barked and then ran further ahead.

"Wait up will you!" I muttered, knowing the dog couldn't hear me. "Why am I even doing this again?"

Hoshie's POV

I never asked to be queen of my land. But ever since I got here, I have been. There weren't ever that many people in my kingdom. Just mainly children, all only staying for a short amount of time. The one thing that did surprise me was Toby. When he got here, he was laying in the dirt, all bruised. He honestly looked like someone had beaten him! There was a girl patching him up. I didn't recognize her. She didn't look like someone who had come from Metro City though. It was more of a formal outfit she was wearing, like my husband used to wear.

Because of this, I didn't think it was my son. So I let the girl put bandages on him, and didn't stop my daily walk. When I had come back the next day, he was still there, but the girl was gone. Meaning he was by himself. I still didn't go and talk to him though. On the third day he was gone. I had decided that it wasn't my son, but a boy that looked like he could have been. About a week later I saw the girl again. She was in the meadow picking flowers when I heard her scream and then a boy start laughing. When I got a closer look, she was giving him warning looks, and he was still laughing.

People have always said to me, that I was good with children. But these two seemed different. They were obviously the same in some ways, yet different in others.

"Toby! That was so mean!" The girl said with a serious look on her face. As I got closer to them, I noticed how much he looked like me. I had never gotten to know my child. I knew it was a boy, and I had insisted to my husband that if I had a son, that his name would be Tobio. Could this be my long lost child?

"Astrid, you are such a party pooper. Loosen up, will ya!" He said grinning. He was obviously happy with whatever he had done. "It won't kill you to have some fun every now and then. I mean picking flowers can't be that much fun can it?" He tilted his head to the side with a questioning look. Just like Bill used to give me when I would ask a bazaar question.

"You have to much fun." She retorted sticking her tongue out. He started laughing again. I decided that watching and observing was getting me no where. I got up and brushed myself off.

"Impossible!" He replied laughing even harder. I walked closer and I'm pretty sure I almost gave him a heart attack when I cleared my throat. He fell the the ground, and looked up at me confused. "Can I help you, miss?" He got up and dusted himself off.

"Would your name be Tobio Tenma?" I asked tilting my head waiting for an answer. He looked at the girl who shrugged.

"Yes... And you would be...?" I had completely forgotten to introduce myself!

"My name is Hoshie. I am the ruler of this land. And your mother." He was gaping at me. The girl started laughing, most likely at how ridiculous his face looked.

"Hoshie...? Doesn't really ring a bell... If you really are my mother, then how did you die, and what was dad's favorite piece of furniture in the house?" He asked, curios for an answer.

"Well I died giving birth to you." His face couldn't have been more shocked. "And your fathers favorite piece of furniture in the house was his desk. It was imported from Europe." He wiped the weirdness from his face, and all that was left was a smile.

That was four months ago. He came to me today looking for his tools. I had hesitated, but gave him the combination to his safe. Granted that meant we would have to change the combination, but that didn't matter.

"Master Hoshie!" My robot servant, Yuki, stated.

"Ah, yes. What would be the problem, Yuki?" I asked it politely.

"Master Toby has been talking mad ever since you gave him his tools!" I tilted my head, and got off of the bed where I had been working on a scrapbook of all of my visitors.

"Really? And what kind of nonsense has he been rambling on about now?" Normally I had my servants closely watch Toby. I still didn't know everything about him, and it was always interesting to hear what my robot's had to say.

"He keeps saying that Master Astro completely vanished!" I ran my hand through my hair.

"Vanished you say? Well let me go and see what all the fuss is about." Yuki thanked me and rolled out of the room off to make lunch. Toby's room was rather close to mine, right next to Astro's. Behind the closed door I could hear Toby mumbling to himself. I couldn't tell weather he was awake or not though. "Tobio?" I asked knocking on the door. It cracked and he stuck his head out.

"Oh. It's just you. I was worried. Quick. Come in." He was acting rather strangely, and there wasn't any sign of Astro as far as I could see. But it wasn't possible for anyone to just get up and vanish, was it? I didn't think so. I walked into the room to find it a complete mess.

"And what in the world happened in here?" I asked confused. Toby always kept his room so clean and tidy.

"I had to look for Astro. But he wasn't here. He completely vanished into thin air!" He shouted throwing his arms up into the air.

"That's not possible." I said, shooting down his statement.

"But it is mom. I saw it."

"Well, I find that rather hard to believe." I felt my cat rub on my leg, trying to change the subject. It could tell I was about to lecture Toby. Tony didn't really seem to like that.

The heard running from down the hall, but didn't bother to look until it stopped. All of a sudden I found the door on the floor, and a girl holding a boys hand. "Get away from my nephew!" She hollered at me.

"Your nephew?" The girl seemed to think about it.

"Get away from my cousin!" She looked proud of herself. She didn't seem to be much older then Toby, who by now was trying to hide. Granted what he thought was hiding, wasn't exactly the smartest thing. The was under the covers of his bed, shaking, while mumbling to himself over and over again. The other door, that wasn't knocked down was opened, and the closed. There was a boy with blue glasses looking straight at me.

"Wassup." Was all he said, before he joined the other two teenagers.

"Who are you? And how did you get into the castle?" Astrid pushed the boy with the glasses aside.

"It was me, Queen Hoshie. They said they could help." She looked guilty. I shrugged and nodded. I honestly didn't care. It was just the fact that I didn't know them, that bothered me. I mean what kind of prince tries to hide in the covers of his bed, mumbling under his breath like a mad man?

"That's quite all right." I turned away from her to face the rest of the group. "And you would all be...?" I asked, questioning with my eyes why they were even here in the first place.

"Oh. Right. I'm Kitty and this is my husband Nolan." She said looking over at the boy wearing a black hoodie.

"I'm Jon." The boy with the blue glasses stated looking over at the bed. Tony started purring. That was never good. When a cat-dog purrs its normally fine. But he was rainbow, so it was completely different. He walked into the center of the room, and the whole room burst into a blinding white light. When I opened my eyes everyone, including Toby, was gone.

(1) I really like dogs. I actually just got a puppy named Angel about four months ago. :) But I felt as though since Star's kind of evil, that she has sort of a "I hate the world" kind of attitude, if you get what I'm saying.

Well that was the end of that chapter. :) Hope you guys are happy with the chapter. I know it's longer then it normally is. :P I figured I had to make it up to all of you somehow... :)- Star Atomu Saturday